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Photo of the Week – February 11, 2016

Don’t take that the wrong way. I like these photos, but I couldn’t fit them, thematically, into either of my previous posts on the recent blizzard. Instead, I’m putting them into their own category: photos of frost after a blizzard. These are not photos that show the depth of the snow, the wind-blown drifts or patterns in the snow, or anything about the ecological impacts of the blizzard. They’re just photos of frosty plants that happen to be in deep snow with cool drifts (not shown). I hope you enjoy them.

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About Chris Helzer

Chris Helzer is the Director of Science for The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska. His main role is to evaluate and capture lessons from the Conservancy’s land management and restoration work and then share those lessons with other landowners – both private and public. In addition, Chris works to raise awareness about the importance of prairies and their conservation through his writing, photography, and presentations to various groups.
Chris is also the author of "The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States", published by the University of Iowa Press. He lives in Aurora, Nebraska with his wife Kim and their children.

7 thoughts on “Photo of the Week – February 11, 2016”

Next time this happens, try to find the entrance to a burrow. Warm moist air from underground makes neat frost structures when it hits very cold air. If there are any caves or waterfalls in the area they would be even better.

I wonder, do you have any advice on germinating the seeds of round-headed lespedeza? Funny that you should have a photo of it here JUST when Iâm thinking about germinating the seed I collected this past summer for a butterfly garden that Iâm designing in Oakville.

Sean James NPD, President of Fern Ridge Landscaping & Eco-consulting

Chair of Landscape Ontarioâs Environmental Stewardship Committee

Master Gardener

(Remember and pass on that this is the United Nations Decade of Biodiversity!)

I’m not sure I really have much advice for you. We’ve always had good luck getting lespedeza to germinate and establish in our plantings. We haven’t done any kind of pretreatment with lespedeza, but I also haven’t ever investigated our actual germination percentages.